Psychiatrist from Atlanta to succeed Barbara McAneny, MD

CHICAGO -- The American Medical Association (AMA) on Tuesday elected Patrice Harris, MD, a psychiatrist from Atlanta, to be its 174th president.

As president-elect, in June 2019 Harris will succeed Barbara McAneny, MD, who will be installed Tuesday evening as president for the coming year. Harris will be the association's second African-American president and the fifth woman to hold the office.

"Thank you to this House for this great honor and privilege of a lifetime," she said. "I believe our AMA has well-crafted policy concerning the challenging healthcare environment in this country. It will be my honor to represent the AMA in the venues where important issues will be debated. I am committed to preserving the central role of the physician-patient relationship in our healing art."

Patrice Harris, MD, stands after being elected president-elect of the American Medical Association. (Photo credit: Ted Grudzinski for the American Medical Association)

For his part, Sirio congratulated Harris, calling her a "tremendous asset" to the AMA. "I want thank everyone for the tremendous and joyful experience of serving for the last 30 years. While it's bittersweet that my time comes to an end, I am heartened by the opportunity to be a part improving health in our system and in the lives of physicians and patients."

Sirio said he would continue his activism. "Our healthcare system needs innovations, physicians need supporting to move us forward, and we can all use a little more joy in our work. I want to continue to be part of these innovations because that's who I am."

The association also continued its other business, including approving a resolution calling for the AMA to develop a guide for best health practices for seniors living in retirement communities. "Our [section] members are senior members ... [but] 70% are not retired," said Claire Wolfe, MD, a delegate for the senior physicians section. "Many of them live in senior communities and wish to help with healthy practices, offering advice on vaccinations and how to have good water systems so people don't get Legionnaire's. There is no repository of what's out there."

This resolution "asks our AMA in collaboration with geriatricians and public health people to gather information already available and place it in a repository -- probably on our website -- so it's available for anyone who wants to look into these things to find the best information out there."

Another resolution passed by the delegates called for the AMA to urge school health education programs to include information about the importance of routine Pap tests in the detection of early cervical cancer.

The AMA board of trustees also announced that it plans to file a "friend of the court" brief in a Texas case involving the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The case in question was filed in February by the state of Texas along with 19 other states, all led by Republican governors. It argues that because the tax reform bill passed by Congress gets rid of the ACA's "individual mandate" penalty for not having health insurance, the requirement for individuals to have health insurance is void, and because of that, the rest of the law -- which they say hinges on the mandate -- should be invalidated.

The Justice Department has said that it thinks the individual mandate repeal effectively invalidates the ACA's provisions restricting the variance in the premiums that could be charged and requiring insurers to cover, but that the rest of the ACA still stands. The AMA will oppose the lawsuit, Jerry Harmon, MD, chairman of the AMA board of trustees, told the delegates.

"If the plaintiff in the suit were successful, patients would no longer have protections for preexisting conditions, and children would no longer have coverage to age 26," he said. "Annual and lifetime dollar limits could be reinstated, leading to more medical bankruptcies due to health costs."

David Henkes, MD, a delegate from Texas, said he would "fervently urge" the board not to file the brief at this time and at least wait until the case reaches the appellate level. "If the AMA files brief now, there will be considerable pressure from the state [medical society] to file its own amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs' position" because it will put Texas physicians in a tricky political situation.

"Should the AMA file a brief in this case, I have no doubt it will interfere with our work on key state issues such as maintaining liability reform, scope of practice, public health, and graduate medical education," he said. "Filing a brief at this time will reverse all the positive progress we've been able to make."

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